My daughter and I collected the empty cans and bottles in our home this morning. We had six full garbage bags later so I knew we would be spending a bit more time at the recycling centre. When we got there, a man and his kids were also doing the morning recycling and were using two of the four machines to recycle their plastic and cans. Luckily, we were able to use the two remaining machines.
Of course, there were others that came, but when they saw the two families with garbage bags full of recycled things, they quickly left. However, one woman came in with just five cans and looked as if she was in a hurry. So I stopped what I was doing and let her in to recycle her cans. Of course, she was grateful, and it felt good to let her go ahead of me. But that was not the whole story.
My daughter and I continued to work through the bags, but the plastic recycling machine stopped working because it was full. My daughter was left with nothing to do. The other family was still using the other two plastic recycling machines, but it seemed that they were almost done. I just told my daughter we would have to wait until they were done. But the man of the other family came through with another act of kindness. He offered to let us go ahead of him. I was really surprised, because we had more than five bottles, but he didn't seem to mind. I happily accepted it.
It was great to give and then to get an act of kindness in turn. It was small. I didn't expect it, but it surely brightened up my day.
